WASHINGTON, D.C. — Martin Perez marked his birthday by giving the Pittsburgh Pirates a great gift after their first loss of the season: a strong performance.
The 33-year-old left-handed pitcher kept the Washington Nationals in check for 6 2/3 innings, striking out six and allowing two runs as the Pirates won 7-4 on Thursday before 11,135 at Nationals Park to clinch the three-game series. The game was delayed by 70 minutes due to bad weather.
After starting the season with seven away games, the Pirates (6-1) will have their home opener at PNC Park against the Baltimore Orioles at 4:12 p.m. on Friday.
Perez (1-0) was effective, throwing strikes on 71.8% of his pitches (61 of 85) and allowing six hits and two walks. He became the oldest Pirates pitcher to start on his birthday since Rick Rhoden did the same on May 16, 1986, at the age of 33. It had been almost 19 years since a Pirates pitcher achieved a win on their birthday, as Kip Wells did in a 4-2 victory at Cincinnati on April 21, 2005 — his 28th birthday.
Perez had only three games with six or more strikeouts for the Texas Rangers last season, striking out seven against the Philadelphia Phillies on April 2, and the Colorado Rockies on May 19, and six against the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 23.
The Pirates provided Perez with plenty of run support, starting with a four-run first inning. It was the sixth time in seven games they scored six or more runs and the fifth time they scored seven or more.
Nationals right-handed pitcher Josiah Gray (0-2), who had 10 strikeouts without allowing a walk in 6 1/3 innings in a 2-0 loss to the Pirates last Sept. 14, gave up three hits, two walks, and two sacrifice flies.
Oneil Cruz hit a leadoff single to right field and advanced to third on Bryan Reynolds’ double down the left-field line. Ke’Bryan Hayes drew a full-count walk to load the bases for Jack Suwinski, whose sacrifice fly to left scored Cruz from third for a 1-0 lead.
Connor Joe drew a walk on four brushback pitches to load the bases again, and Rowdy Tellez sent a single up the middle that second base umpire Andy Fletcher had to step around to drive in two more runs and make it 3-0. Henry Davis added another sacrifice fly for a 4-0 lead.
This was the first time the Pirates had multiple sacrifice flies in the first inning of a game since Andrew McCutchen and Aramis Ramirez did so back-to-back in a 9-8 victory over Arizona on Aug. 18, 2015, at PNC Park.
The Pirates added another run in the second as Michael A. Taylor hit a leadoff double off the left-center wall and scored on a single up the middle by Reynolds to make it 5-0.
The Nationals responded when Joey Gallo got a leadoff double and scored on Jesse Winker’s single, cutting the lead to 5-1, but Perez got Trey Lipscomb to ground out and Ildemaro Vargas to swing at a changeup to end the inning.
After Suwinski drew a leadoff walk in the fifth, the Nationals brought in right-handed reliever Derek Law, a Seton LaSalle graduate. Joe hit a 1-1 inside curveball 400 feet to left for a two-run homer and a 7-1 lead.
When Perez left a first-pitch cutter over the middle of the plate with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, CJ Abrams hit it for a home run to make the score 7-2.
Pirates manager Derek Shelton kept Perez in to begin the seventh. He walked Vargas and allowed a two-out single to Adams before being replaced by right-hander Luis Ortiz, who got Lane Thomas to fly out.
After Ortiz walked two batters in the eighth, the Nationals scored two runs on RBI singles by Lipscomb and pinch-hitter Luis Garcia Jr. to make the score 7-4. The Pirates turned to lefty Aroldis Chapman, who struck out Jacob Young on a full-count slider to end the inning.
David Bednar finished the Nationals off in the ninth, striking out Thomas and Joey Meneses to earn his first save.
